Sustainable palm oil union, “against crisis, no demonization”

Demonizations and sabotage do not help to give balanced responses to the economic and environmental challenges that await us. This is convinced by the president of the Italian Sustainable Palm Oil Union, Mauro Fontana, who on the occasion of the digital media workshop ‘L’Olio di Palma in Italy. Resilient, Safe, Sustainable ‘took stock of the sector. The challenges of population growth and climate change, explains Fontana, “require a major change in production methods in both the agricultural and industrial fields. Then everything has dramatically worsened by the pandemic and the Ukrainian war which have highlighted the too rigid short-term approach of recent decades ”. “We need a different, more holistic and strategic vision. In this logic, the demonization of sustainable palm oil is to be avoided: if we continue to contrast resources we risk not being able to give balanced responses to the challenges that await us, in particular on the need for a quantity of agri-food resources in terms of variety and calories. necessary between now and 2050 “. In food, explains Fontana, 100% of palm oil is sustainable and 95% is RSPO certified. It is “an oil with known and therefore traceable origins; produced without converting forests and respecting ecosystems with a high conservation value; uses cultivation practices that respect high carbon value forests; produced with agricultural practices aimed at preserving peat bogs; not coming from the conversion into plantations of areas subjected to voluntary fires; it protects workers’ rights and promotes the development of small independent producers. ”“ Sourcing with certified sustainable palm oil therefore means focusing on controls that guarantee protection of the territory and respect for the environment and people ”. But the commitment of the Italian Union of Sustainable Palm Oil continues: “As a priority for 2022 we have that of opening up to a greater number of stakeholders, therefore no longer limiting ourselves to the food sector and producers, but also to institutions and civil society , consumer goods and commercial distribution companies ”concludes Fontana.